Quote Originally Posted by lockee View Post
I hope its for air intake. Drawing in extra air could help keep the fan speed down making things quieter.
They aren't air intakes. Air intake flows down from the top of the fan and gets pushed radially away from the axis of rotation. If those were air intakes the air would have to flow against the push of the fan.

Surely they are for decoration, or air outlets from the VRM section.

Speculating about the performance from this article is kinda pointless since he didn't mention what card in the current gen it is being compared to.